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The role of clouds in shifting the midlatitude jet

The role of clouds in shifting the midlatitude jet.

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The role of clouds in shifting the midlatitude jet

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  1. The role of clouds in shifting the midlatitude jet The relationship between jet shift and the change in absorbed shortwave radiation gradient for (black) RCP8.5 runs that are fully-coupled and (red) amipFuture runs in which an SST perturbation is imposed and cloud-radiative anomalies cannot impact SSTs. Each marker is an individual model. Objective: To investigate causes of the wide inter-model spread in how much the Southern Hemisphere mid-latitude jet shifts poleward under global warming Research: Cloud-induced changes in the latitudinal gradient of absorbed shortwave radiation (ASR) are well-correlated with SH jet shifts in RCP8.5. In experiments in which sea surface temperature increases are prescribed and cloud-radiation anomalies cannot cause changes in surface temperature, the inter-model spread in jet shifts decreases substantially while the spread in ASR gradient anomalies remains large, and the relationship between jet shifts and ASR gradient anomalies disappears. Impact: Contrary to prevailing wisdom, cloud-induced radiation changes are the cause, and not the result, of inter-model differences in jet shift. Rather than being driven by jet shifts, changes in the ASR gradient arise from intrinsic sensitivity of cloud properties to planetary warming that is model-specific. Reducing the uncertainty in cloud feedbacks is thus necessary to constrain future circulation changes.   Reference: Ceppi, P., M. D. Zelinka, and D. L. Hartmann (2014), The response of the Southern Hemispheric eddy-driven jet to future changes in shortwave radiation in CMIP5, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, doi:10.1002/2014GL060043.

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